Orbital Command Stations
Orbital Command Stations, or OCS's, were militarized space stations utilized by the United States military in order to coordinate its forces and rapidly deploy them across both Earth and the Sol system. Construction on the stations began in secret in 2033 at the Luna Tycho Shipyards as the ASGARD project. Three were completed by 2037; the OCS Reagan stationed over Ecuador, the OCS Eisenhower stationed over Uganda, and the OCS Kennedy stationed over Papua New Guinea. The Orbital Command Stations had astonishing capabilities, such as being able to command fleets of hypersonic unmanned aircraft and coordinating naval support around the planet. They could impose devastating blockades against US adversaries, and coordinate rapid response strikes in a matter of minutes. In all, the stations granted the United States military supremacy over space, and the ability to project its power anywhere at any time. They were nicknamed "Battlestars" after the TV show Battlestar Galactica. Commanding fleets of hypersonic unmanned aircraft and coordinating Naval support around the planet, the Orbital Command Stations could impose devastating blockades against US adversaries, and coordinate rapid response strikes in a matter of minutes. Their creation under Project ASGARD also brought with it a formal US military presence on the Moon and eventually a Japanese response at their terminator bases. The end of the Third World War saw the US be granted sole military access to space. They would go on to construct more Orbital Command Stations, as well as next generation Space-to-Ground bombardment platforms and Space-to-Space assault ships. Description The Orbital Command Stations were designed specifically for permanent command-and-control (C2) operations from Geostationary orbit in space. Each of these stations were provided with two complete crews, called the Black crew and the Gold crew, with each crew serving typically on 60 - 100 day missions. To eliminate the risk of delays and streamline crew turnover and replenishment, the stations were designed to berth directly to the lower docking ring of the first three space elevators, thereby securing American space access superiority. The stations were originally designed as a single, hardened Stanford Torus, with utility pillars converging on a second, smaller ring in the middle of the station. The smaller ring would eventually be fed with the tether of the first space elevators, and converted into a docking collar with additional structure added above and below the main torus to provide additional defense. The Station could ascend and decend along the elevator, but was largely fixed in its orbit. To defend itself the stations were built with hardened exteriors, and outfitted with laser, missile and rail-gun batteries to destroy incoming threats. A fourth Orbital Command Station remained in drydock at Tycho until the Third World War. Unlike its counterparts, this station was designed to relocate to different positions in orbit at a moment's notice, and would go on to be the basis for future military command platforms. History 'Project ASGARD' In 2033 the Price administration directed the Defense Department's to proceed with Project ASGARD, a top secret program to provide comprehensive C2 capabilities from Space, effectively eliminating communication lag time between ships, troops, and aircraft in the field and strategic commanders. Along with space-to-ground/air/sea networking the OCS network would provide C2 to unmanned spy satellites, refueling and repair facilities and orbital bombardment stations. No longer relying on vulnerable land based command centers, the United States could project its power with minimum effort and superb accuracy. Lunar Energy Ltd. was contracted with Tycho Shipbuilding to build five space stations, two polar, and three equatorial. Construction began in secret chambers at the Tycho shipyards, disguised as part of the Galileo-class shipbuilding effort. All three stations were completed and Launched in 2037 while the near side of the moon was facing away from Earth. The stations were blanketed in metamaterial shrouds and positioned in Geostationary orbit, trisecting the Earth. OCS Eisenhower was stationed over Uganda, OCS Kennedy over Papua New Guinea, and the main command station, OCS Reagan was stationed over Ecuador. After a year of shakedown tests, the stations' shrouds were removed and the program revealed to the public, having never been detected in that time. 'Service (2038-2051)' In 2041 the US Army Corps of Engineers and Navy Seabees completed the terrestrial anchors for the first three space elevators while counterweight "Anchor Asteroids were positioned in higher orbit above the OCS platforms. The elevator tethers were fed through the stations themselves, providing direct US control over the most inexpensive means to reach space and for space based products to return to Earth. Primary command and control moved to the Orbital Command Stations in 2044, with the Pentagon being downsized to serve a largely administrative role. This change was seen as a means to limited the number of failure points, with space based systems seeming invulnerable to smaller powers. No longer relying on vulnerable land based command centers, the United States could project its power with minimum effort and superb accuracy. 'Destruction' On Thanksgiving day, 2051, all three of the original Orbital Command Stations were destroyed in pebble mob attacks by the Japanese. The attack killed the bulk of the station's crews, but also severed the all three space elevators, sending the anchor asteroids into higher orbits while the elevator tethers burnt up in the Earth's atmosphere. This attack not only crippled US C2 capabilities in space, but also sent the Cislunar economy into a tailspin and severly hurt terrestrial markets that depended on in-space production and services. Legacy The Mk. 2 OCS Station remained in service until 2069 at which point it was converted into a museum, and C2 duties were transferred over to a new generation of stations and spacecraft. The OCS platforms' design have influenced all successive generations of military command stations and influenced the structure of modern US and eventually Mexican military command systems. After the War the US, fearing another total loss of three critical platforms, created a command network based around many layers of redundancy with multiple heavily fortified bases networking command to smaller platforms that could replace the duties of the larger stations if they were destroyed. Mexico preferred to create stations so large that destroying them would be almost impossible, and leave them permanently staffed rather than rotating crews back to Earth. Category:Military Technology Category:World War III Category:21st-century conflicts